The challenge facing Zimbabwean nationalism in the 1990s is how criticism of continued white domination of the economy can be transformed into a more fundamental critique of the economic inefficiency of the persisting exploitative production structure, through an economic policy framework which moves beyond eliminating the narrowly defined barriers to black petty bourgeois economic mobility, towards broadening Zimbabwe's production base and improving the livelihoods of the majority. The authors look at the scope of economic indigenization in Zimbabwe, the struggles of the various segments of the black petit bourgeoisie to control the economy in the postcolonial period and the internal contradictions of the black business lobby. There is evidence that Zimbabwe faces an increased level of conflict among black elites over the distribution of State patronage to gain relative economic ascendancy in the black accumulation struggles. The problems of the Indigenous Business Development Centre (IBDC), formed in December 1990 to press for more black participation in the Zimbabwean economy, seem to mirror the failure of the wider indigenization and structural adjustment policies to deliver real opportunities for black business growth. At the same time the IBDC has not succeeded in institutionalizing its organizational strategies in a manner that can deliver coherent policy alternatives. Bibliogr.